Positive transformations
To many, 2021 was a year of recovery. The financial shock caused by the COVID-19 outbreak back in 2020 had an unprecedented impact on thousands of businesses worldwide. 2020 was a successful year for Bamboo Group – largely due to the diversification facilitated by adopting a mixed work model in its service and product companies. However, Bamboo Group had also put great emphasis on further strengthening its processes and client relationships in 2021.
It was a year of incredible growth, both in terms of our global outreach and our expertise. We refined our internal company processes, focused on improving communication between team members, and enhanced our hiring procedures. This didn’t go unnoticed by the global tech community: our portfolio companies have been recognized as top-notch business partners by numerous trusted platforms.
But all of that is just a small part of the milestones Bamboo Group has managed to reach over the course of 2021. Let’s take a closer look at what our team has achieved in that timespan.
Sustaining a High Level of Financial Performance
Financial stability is one of the prime goals of Bamboo Group as a business. To that end, we employ best practices in our budget management – the company’s consistent growth over the course of 2021 was a perfect showcase of that.
We continued to invest more into marketing, which experienced a 26.93% growth. There’s been an overall increase in Bamboo Group’s revenue by 15.2%, with the company’s EBIT and net income rising by 23.9% and 26.1% respectively.
Continued recognition
Bamboo Group and its portfolio companies have enjoyed widespread industry acknowledgement over the course of 2021. To start with, Bamboo Apps was named among top app developers in Estonia by the Top Mobile App Development Companies website, which uses advanced algorithms to determine which vendors provide the highest quality services across the board.
Bamboo Agile was also featured in a number of prestigious rankings. The Manifest placed Bamboo Agile as number 4 in the Top 100 Software Development Companies in Estonia ranking and number 2 in the list of Top 20 Web Development Companies in Estonia. Bamboo Agile has received recognition from Techreviewer as well, ranking as one of the Top Healthcare App Developers and Top Software Developers worldwide in 2021. And finally, Bamboo Agile has made it onto the 100 Baltics list compiled by Clutch.
But that’s not all: Znaj has also received broad industry acclaim, being named as one of the Top 100 best EdTech companies across Central & Eastern Europe by the global analytical company HolonIQ and a centre for modern education EdCrunch.
In summer, Bamboo Group took part in MWC as part of the Estonian pavilion. There, the teams of Bamboo Group, Bamboo Agile, and Bamboo Apps presented their expertise as reliable investment partners, high-quality software developers, and experts in automotive and mobility solutions design.
Strengthening global partnerships
Bamboo Group has always held up superior client experience as one of its top priorities. This has helped our company earn the trust of clients from over 22 countries all around the world. And in 2021, we have further expanded our global reach: on top of continuing to work with our old international partners, our team has acquired new clients from Switzerland, Germany, Malta, Norway, and Sweden.
While we’re on the topic of Bamboo Group’s international collaborations, we can’t help but mention that January 2021 has marked the anniversary of our VAS department’s operations in Africa. As of 2021, we had been actively working in Kenya and Gabon for 10 years. The main driver of that year’s income was the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, which brought tons of traffic to our platforms. We are looking forward to continuing our work as a major SMS marketing operator in Kenya, and will keep providing high-quality services to our African partners.
Carbon footprint neutrality
Following the trend set back in 2020, Bamboo Group continued to take active measures for reducing the environmental impact of the company’s activities. The mixed model we employed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic had allowed us to continuously minimise the carbon emissions produced as a result of transportation, business travel, and general work commute.
Just as before, Bamboo Group encouraged a paperless approach to almost all documentation over the course of 2021, promoting more eco-friendly practices throughout the majority of its corporate processes.
Strengthening our expertise
Delivering a high-quality service or product is impossible without a team of highly qualified specialists, which is why Bamboo Group does everything in its power to support its teammates’ desire to grow professionally – and last year was no exception.
In 2021, Bamboo Agile received two official developer certifications from one of the most popular e-Commerce platforms worldwide, Shopify. The Shopify App Development Certification proved the team’s ability to create intuitive merchant experiences and to effectively use the development tools and resources provided by the platform.
The Product Fundamentals Certification, on the other hand, is evidence of Bamboo Agile’s high level of expertise in Shopify’s core features and store operations, as well as extensions, integrations, apps, themes, and Shopify Plus.
Of course, Shopify wasn’t all there was to it. On top of generally providing valuable opportunities for its team members’ professional development, Bamboo Group began working on expanding its expertise in design. The company will take steps to rightfully present its UX/UI design expertise as one of its major strong suits in the coming years.
Refining our internal processes
We’ve always strived for perfection in our company processes and team experience. In 2021, Bamboo Group put special emphasis on enhancing the workflows of its team members by implementing newer and better practices into all corporate activities.
First of all, we began to change and improve our practices in regards to talent search and recruitment – kudos to the marketing department and our colleagues from other units. We also continued to refine our approach to interviews, building a great dynamic between the candidates and the interviewers. Likewise, it was only possible thanks to the efforts and positive attitude of the teammates involved.
Secondly, we used best practices to raise the efficiency of communication between different company units. As a result, we’ve decided to create professional guilds, which will allow teammates to exchange work experiences, become more effective at completing tasks, participate in different projects, and generally diversify their work routine.
Additionally, we kept improving our development and release processes, and we will continue to do so in the future.
What next?
As of today, Bamboo Group stands as one of the top European business hubs, amassing widespread recognition in the tech scene thanks to the company’s focus on delivering superior client experiences, constant professional growth, and early adoption of state-of-the-art practices in process and financial management.
In 2022, Bamboo Group will continue to cultivate its brand, now with a greater focus on automotive and mobility solutions development, UX/UI design, improved talent management, and building even closer relationships with our existing and potential clients. Our roadmap for the coming years is quite extensive, and we will keep doing everything necessary to build a great foundation for the further development and evolution of the company.
